Improvement in lock-joints for railroad-rails



A.DOUGLASS.

LOOK. JOINT FOR RAILROAD RAILS.

essem UNITED ST TES PATENT OFFICE.

,AAR N DOUGLASS, or PATERSON,NEW JERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN LOCK-JOINTS Foa' RAILR AD-RAILSL;

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 47,528 dated Mayfl, 1865.

'To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I,AARoN DOUGLASS, of the city of Paterson, county of Passaic, and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and Improved Lock-Joint for Railway-Bars; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, ref-.

' erence being bad to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

Therehave been many inventions of what are called lock-joints for railway-bars, consisting of modes of forming or constructing the ends of the bars, whereby, though end play is provided for, they are prevented from moving either vertically or laterally relatively to each other without the use of joint chairs, screws, clamps, or other faste'nings than spikes driven into the cross-ties." Some of these inventions were well suited to thepurpose intended, except that they have been difficult and too expensive to construct, and

'I believe that this has been the reason why not one has ever been adopted or used to any extent. l

The objectof this invention is to overcome this difficulty and to'obtain a lock-j oint w hich,

without presenting any difiicultyin its construction, will meet all the required conditions in its operation; and the said invention consistsin a novel formation of the ends of the rails or bars, whereby the desired result is obtained without cutting away any portion of .the'necks of the rails or bars.

To enable others skilled in the art to. construct lock-joints according to my invention and apply them to use, I'will proceed to describe, with reference to the drawings, the manner in which my invention is applied to the ordinary inverted'T-rail incommon use.

Figure 1 in the drawings is a perspective view of a finished end of a rail or bar, showing one-half of the joint. Fig. 2 represents a transverse elevation of the same, and exhibits, by the aid of dotted lines, thecomparison of the formof the rail proper with the form of the joint. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the ends of two rails or bars forming the joint.

' Fig. dis a'horizontal section of the joint, taken through the necks of the two rails or bars. Figs. 5, 6, and 7 are perspective. views illustrative of the process of forming the ends of the rails or bars to produce the joint.

Similar letters of reference indicate co resj 1 sponding parts in theseveral figures.

Each rail end is formed with threelapspA.

B (3, Figs. 1, 2,and3, and corresponding 31'e-, cesses. The lap A forms a portion of thelbase, 1 B forms a portion of the head, and '0 forms a v 3 portion of the neck. Aiand B are on oneside j of a vertical plane, passing longitudinally through the center-;of the rail, and (J on the y oppositeside of the said plane, and their inner longitudinal faces are flat and in theafore. 1 said plane. The upper face of Aand the low- T er face of O are in the; samehorizontal plane. and the lower faceof Band upper faeeof O i ;:-are in the same horizontal plane. The forma- 1 tion of these laps produces three correspond *ing recesses, A B G, in the end of the rail, for the reception of the three. corresponding laps of the end of'the nextrail iwhenthe two rails are placed end toend and pushed togetner inalongitudinal direction. The formand I arrangement ofthe laps and recesses areshown it in Fig. 2. The laps of the two rails combine to form a continuous rail. One set of laps: confines the others both in a vertical and a i lateral direction, so that neither rail can move y in either of those directions without the other, and yet the necessary degreeof end-playiisx, permitted to the joint. Fig. 4 exhibits the jointwith the ends of the'laps of each railii not quite pushed up to the shoulders at c at the backs of the other one. The several; shoulders and ends of the laps may be of square or oblique form; -but I prefer to have I 1 the shoulder c and the end of the lap C oblique,

as shown in Fig.4.

I will now describe a method of forming the ends of the rails or bars. The end,having been heated to a proper degree, is placed on a i 1 sliding table arranged in proper relation to a saw, and by the latter cut. vertically and j 1 longitudinally to remove portions of the head and base of the rail, as shown at 8 8 in Fig. 5,

and in red outline in Fig. 6, leaving the neck of the rail, entire. By another saw, running at right angles to that first mentioned, the

head and baseare out transversely, as shown at 9 9 in the figures above mentioned,to intersect with the firstcut, 8 8, and thereby detach.

the pieces 10 10. (Indicated in black dotted outline in Fig. 6.) The rail is then turned over on its side, and by means of two parallel saws is cut longitudinally parallel with the base, as shown at 12 12in red lines in Fig. 6, to the same distance as it was out by the first cut, 8

8, dividing the' e nd into three separate parts, A B O, as indicated in the latter figure. The rail is now IGIDOYQdtO adie-block of suitable form, in which it is placed on its side, as shown in Fig. 7, and subjected to the pressure orblow of a suitable tool, so that as much of the so that its lower face is flattened and brought.

to the plane 13. The dotted red lines in Fig. 7 show the position towhich the outer sides of A, B, and G are brought by this operation.

Two rails having been similarly treated will fit together to form the lock-joint, as shown in Fig. 3.

Rails united by this joint naybe separated by being sprung aside, by means of a crowbar or other means, so far outof line that the two arcs described by their ends in this-movement will cause the laps A B0 of each rail to be withdrawn from the recesses 11 b oin the other one.

1 do not claim, broadly, the construction of a lock-joint between railway-bars by means of laps formed on one bar fitting into recesses formed in the other one; but

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is v The combination of thethree laps A B C, two formed of portions of the base and head of the rail, and oneof a portionof the neck thereof, by dividingthe rail in vertical and horizont-al planes, and ofit'setting the neck in a lateral direction between the said horizontal planes, substantially in the form and manner 

